SMART Goals for 2018
There is a ton of talk about goals for the new year, have you set your new year’s resolutions yet?
Some people have goals that never get achieved.
Every year they come back to the new year with the hope that things will be different or that they will live the life they really want to in the next year.
They have hopes such as…
- Losing weight
- Having a deeply passionate relationship
- Getting out of debt and becoming financially free
- Starting a business
- Traveling the world
But unfortunately, most people don’t ever get around to accomplishing any of these goals they had set for their new year.
Instead, they drift through their life, wondering and hoping it will get better.
However, there is a better way.
A few years ago they developed something called SMART goals. They are specifically designed goals that will encourage and motivate you to their accomplishment.
The acronym SMART will give you most of the direction here, the goals are:
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Time limit in there
Essentially, with smart goals you want to incorporate all of these key pieces into your goal. Let’s look at an example of for further clarification.
For 2018, my big step and the one that intimidates me is to become a public speaker.
So, let’s make it specific:
In 2018, I will speak in front of a large crowd for a paid event.
Our next step is to make it measurable:
In 2018, I will speak in front of a large crowd of at least 1,000 people for a paid event.
The achievable part means that we alone have control over the success or failure of our stated goal. When a goal is not dependent on you and you alone, then someone else has the power over the success or failure of your goal and thus your life. An example of a goal dependent on someone else:
“This year I will finally go on a date with Jennifer Lopez.”
This goal depends on Jennifer Lopez and thus is likely to fail. Instead, I change this goal to:
“This year I will go on a date with a girl just like Jennifer Lopez.”
It doesn’t have to be so specific that you limit all possibilities of your achievement of the goal to only having one way to accomplishment. This sets you up for a loop of disappointment in your goals. Instead, take the power over your own goals.
Since I know that this goal is only dependent on me, I know that I have the power to accomplish it. While other people are surely going to help me with this goal, this goal is completely dependent on me.
The realistic part just means that you know yourself and your reality. I want you to be bigger dreamers, but to think that at age 35, you are finally going to make it into the NBA and dunk like LeBron James is just a little too unrealistic.
Finally, let’s put a time limit on our goal so that we can have out completed SMART goal:
In 2018, I will speak in front of a large crowd of over 1,000 people for a paid event by June 30th, 2018.
With this SMART goal that I have set out, I give my mind a clear direction to go. It knows exactly what I want to do and when I want to do it by. I have clear direction.
In addition, I have defined clear success and failure of this goal. I will know when I have succeeded (and I will celebrate) or I will know when I have failed (and I will reorganize).
Most people don’t even have written goals, but if you take this step to not only make your goals written, but to make them achievable, measurable, specific, actionable, and on a time limit then you are going to be setting better goals.
When you set better goals, you are better at setting the direction of your life and your mind. Then when this happens it becomes even easier to create the life you want.
Set some SMART goals for 2018 today and transform your new year into an amazing one to remember.
